BOOKS
R.H. STAFFORD'S LIBRARY WOMAN Critters in your yard…critters at your library!
Already Mr. and Mrs. Robin have set up housekeeping on a downspout at our back door. Unfortunately, their new digs are just above our water hose, and they are annoyed when we try to draw water, swoopi...
Posted on 6/4/13 at 10:48 AM
ON MY MIND Tools to keep track of your books
I have a habit of keeping records of the books I read, and I have a simple way to do it. I use an index card to write the author, title, subject headings, call number, the dates it was read. They are ...
Posted on 4/26/10 at 6:37 PM
Book Report: 'Up North' loaded with history
I’ve always had a weakness for ongoing fictions that grow with the years.
When I was a kid I liked “Gasoline Alley” because Skeezix grew up and his father got fat. Recently I’ve been watching reruns of the entire Walton’s dramatic series. Normally, when a TV cast member died, the producers killed her off and went on with it. But in “The Walton’s” when Ellen Corby (Grandma) suffered a heart attack in real life, the writers wrote it into the script and Corby kept right on going, even though she could no longer talk. When Will Geer (Grandpa) died, they buried him and went on with the show.
By Dave Wood, columnist , June 13, 2013
Book Report: Breaking barriers on many stages
Back in the 1920s and 1930s, when most black women worked as domestics, scrub ladies and washerwomen, one young black woman born in 1895 in Washington, D.C. would spend her life on the world political and cultural stage.
June 07, 2013
Book Report: Literary treats for the dog days
Summer will soon be upon us. Here’s a pile of books, some light-hearted, some very serious, for readers to while away rainy days ‘Up North.’
By Dave Wood, columnist , May 31, 2013
Book Report: The choice is yours: Lovely poems, exploding tourism
University of Iowa Press has just re-issued a book of poetry by Philip Levine, winner both the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the National Book Award, and who served for a year as United States Poet Laureate.
By Dave Wood, columnist , May 16, 2013
Book Report: Finding the funny in very grave matters
Humorists can make hay of the least likely subjects.
Like death.
Remember W. C. Fields?
By Dave Wood, columnist , April 26, 2013
Book Report: Stolen library book opened his eyes
“Who’s Yer Daddy?” edited by Jim Elledge and David Groff (University of Wisconsin Press, $26.95) is a fascinating look at writers and artists who inspired the work of gay writers and artists by the gay writers and artists themselves.
By Dave Wood, columnist , April 20, 2013
Book Report: Another word on former presidents; waxing poetic on the death of a fly
Three American presidents lead off this week’s roster of books: Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. You could fill libraries with what has already been written by these guys, but leave it to the scholars — they can always find a niche that’s unfilled.
By Dave Wood, columnist , April 11, 2013
Book Report: A new Scandinavian thriller takes the stage
I’m way behind in my coverage of the Scandinavian thriller surge in world publishing, not having even read a Stieg Larsson thriller, so I’ll try to make it up by reviewing a finely wrought thriller by first-time Swedish author Alexander Soderberg. It’s “The Andalucian Friend,” (Crown, $26), translated by Neil Smith.
By Dave Wood, columnist , April 04, 2013
Book Report: This, not your PBS version of London
“I wander thro’ each charter’d street
Near where the charter’d Thames does flow,
By Dave Wood, columnist , March 29, 2013
Book Report: Indiana, no, make that Wisconsin Jones
When I was a kid in a small Wisconsin grade school, one of my favorite subjects was Wisconsin history, taught to me by my sixth-grade teacher, Mrs. Lily Reich.
By Dave Wood, columnist , March 22, 2013
Book Report: Glowing endorsements for new poet
River Falls poet Thomas R. Smith writes that Kristin Laurel’s new book of poetry will “burn itself on your memory.”
By Dave Wood, columnist , March 14, 2013
Book Report: Area author’s round two a success
Not long ago I raved about a first novel written by a neighbor down the road in Lake Elmo, Minn. His name: Jim Trevis.
By Dave Wood, columnist , March 08, 2013
Book Report: Son carries on, expands war narrative
As the River Falls Reads program winds down and folks who have read and enjoyed Michael Shaara’s Pulitzer-Prize winning novel about the Battle of Gettysburg, “The Killer Angels,” are looking for new reading material, I’m happy to report that although Shaara died in 1988, his family lives on in the person of his son, Jeff Shaara, who also writes about the Civil War and has completed his father’s trilogy with “Gods and Generals” and “The Last Full Measure.”
By Dave Wood, columnist , February 28, 2013
Book Report: The dirt: Even Puritans didn’t always come clean
I have ancestors who came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 17th century, so I’m always on the lookout for books, movies or plays about that fabled place.
By Dave Wood, columnist , February 25, 2013
Book Report: Court documents reveal historical truths
I have ancestors who came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the seventeenth century, so I’m always on the lookout for books, movies or plays about that fabled place.
By Dave Wood, Columnist , February 21, 2013
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